Stanford Graduate Workers Join UE in Landslide Vote
In yet another landslide victory for UE in a large unit of graduate workers, the Stanford Graduate Workers Union/UE won their NLRB election on Thursday by a 94 percent margin. SGWU organizer Jason Anderson told the Stanford Daily that the union “is going to be ready to bargain with Stanford as soon as possible.” Although most graduate workers voted in an in-person election at the end of May, mail-in votes were not counted until this week. The unit consists of approximately 3,400 workers.
Coverage in the Stanford Daily »
Hundreds Join Local 506 & 618 Strikers in Rally at Wabtec Corporate HQ for Green Jobs
For about two hours on Thursday, July 6, a busload of strikers from Wabtec’s Erie locomotive plant, joined by hundreds of supporters, chanted, sang and rallied outside Wabtec’s corporate headquarters. Fourteen hundred members of UE Locals 506 and 618 have been on strike since Thursday, June 22, when they voted down Wabtec’s last, best and final offer by a wide margin.
Speakers at the rally included Congresswoman Summer Lee, who told the crowd, “We know that companies like Wabtec are never going to move unless we the people move them. We are sending a message to Wabtec and every other company and corporation in western Pennsylvania that Pittsburgh is a union town. We're going to let them know how strong our movement really is — this is how we're going to win the green jobs of the future.”
Read more about the rally on ueunion.org »
More about the Wabtec strike
UE Local 150 Organizing Blitz to Honor Saladin Muhammad, June 26-30, 2023
During the week of June 26-30, UE hosted an organizing blitz targeting Black majority workplaces across central North Carolina. The blitz talked to thousands of workers in the cities of Greensboro, Durham and Raleigh, as well as state workers at Murdoch Developmental Center in Butner, NC. The blitz was assisted by UE graduate workers from Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and the University of Minnesota. This blitz honored the late Saladin Muhammad, founding organizer of UE Local 150 and a visionary who challenged the entire labor movement to organize Black workers in the the South.
Watch video on YouTube »
First Contract Reached at Refresco
After 11 1/2 months of negotiations and struggle, UE Local 115 in Wharton, NJ has ratified a first contract with Refresco, the largest independent bottling company in the world. Workers will see pay increases of between 10.75 percent and close to 20 percent within the next two years. Workers signed petitions in support of their bargaining committee, wore union stickers and t-shirts in the plant, marched on the boss, displayed strike signs in their cars, contacted Refresco customers to inform them that without justice production could be adversely impacted, and, to the horror of management, showed up en masse and once briefly occupied the hotel negotiating room.
They also took the struggle to KKR, the private equity firm that owns Refresco, constantly reminding KKR investors that they too were responsible for the working conditions at the plant and visiting KKR corporate headquarters in New York City twice.
Look for additional coverage of this important victory in the next UE NEWS Bulletin.
UE Members: New Locomotive Emission Rules Will Clean Up Rail Yards, Create Jobs
In May and June, UE members from Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California spoke out in favor of proposed new Environmental Protection Agency rules on locomotive emissions. The new rules would improve air quality for rail yard workers, including hundreds of UE members who work as rail crew drivers, and the working-class communities surrounding rail yards. They would also help create good, union jobs. Read more »
UE Represented at Union Conventions in Brazil, Quebec
In a return to pre-pandemic practices, UE was delighted to accept invitations to the national conventions of two of our international allies this May. Retired UE General President Peter Knowlton represented UE at a meeting of Confederação Nacional dos Metalúrgicos (CNM-CUT) in Brazil, and Kari Thompson, UE’s Director of International Strategies, attended the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) Congress in Montréal, Quebec. Read more »
UE Leaders Part of Green Worker Organizing Conference
On April 27 and 28, UE representatives participated in a Green Worker Organizing conference in New York City. The event, which was sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung–New York Office, brought together leaders from unions, worker centers, and climate justice groups to discuss the need to organize unorganized workers as part of addressing climate change. Read more »
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